The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1928. WAR IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1928. WAR IN CHINA.

For the (MM that taeki Faf *4* *ertm§ that needi t-egistanc*. Fdr thi future M the dittande. Am the §ooa ituif «* m* to.

the* trouble at Tsihatt seems td have developed to a point at Whifeh it ho longer answers to the usually accepted definition of an "unfortunate incident." The loss bf life and prepetty Whieh the Japanese residents sustained when the Nationalist trdops approached the city was perhaps inevitable, attdbin any case stiCh dCCurreneCs are always amenable to adjustment and compensation. Hostilities between the Japanese troops and „ the KatibtialistS W§*e therefdte suspended for the moment till further investigation was made. But the Nationalists, either because they ar# Completely out of hand or because their leaders were ndt disposed to restrain them, have made a deliberate attack upon the Japanese force, the Japanese have retaliated* and TsinaU is UdW thfe scene of a ftiHoUs conflict, the sttiall Japanese garrison, even with the relhfdrcethetits that haVe recently arrived, ig hopelessly outnumbered, and if it ia overwhelmed the consequences may be astrous in the extreme. For Japan WIH then have a strong 1 ease against China, and her attempts to aeeure justice ot to etact reparations for her nationalists, may induce her to tike steps that might easily involve the other Great Powers in a new Par Eastern crisis. Bat this Is hdrdly a matter for for already indications of an oinijJoUs character are visible dfl the diplomatic horizon. The American Government, having intimated that it might be prepared to mediate at Tsinan if requested by both the opposing parties* has now addressed a very pertinent question to Tokyo* Under the treaty regulating international relatidhfS in the fat 1 East, concluded at the Washington Conference in 1022, and operating since 1024* the nine Contracting PofWI bound themselves ndt td intervene in China except for the protection df their natidttak What the Americans want to know li whether the Japanese operations in Shantung ean be legitimately described as limited td thiti object. Tbis, We need hardly pdint dut, is really a warning to Japan, conveyed in the polite language of diplomacy, to the effect that no matter how difficult her position in regard to China may become she must hold carefully to the terms of,the treaty. No doubt the Japanese Government will attach ,due weight to this reminder, and we may still hope that this most unfortunate episode may be cldsed without any further serious international complication.